U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will visit the Twin Cities on Thursday to participate in a roundtable discussion with the mayors of St. Paul and Minneapolis on creating green energy jobs.

The secretary will tour Honeywell International’s Golden Valley plant before sitting down with St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman; Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, who is running for governor; Democratic U.S. Reps. Keith Ellison of Minneapolis and Betty McCollum of St. Paul; and leaders from Honeywell and labor.

Honeywell International makes energy efficiency controls and systems that are used in businesses and schools. During the roundtable, the officials will discuss how investments in clean energy and energy efficiency present opportunities to create “green” manufacturing jobs in Minnesota and the rest of the country, the Treasury Department said Tuesday.

Bremer Financial’s earnings mixed

St. Paul-based Bremer Financial Corp., the privately held parent of Bremer Bank, reported earnings that were up 2 percent in the fourth quarter, to $15.5 million, but down 9.5 percent for 2009 to $65.2 million on higher loan-loss reserves and deposit insurance costs.

Nonperforming assets — loans on which the borrower has not made payments — rose to $125 million from $114.8 million in the third quarter and $89.9 million in the fourth quarter a year ago. Net charge-offs — loans the bank has written off as uncollectible — were $10.7 million, up from $9.7 million in the third quarter but down from $13.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Xcel drops jet costs from rate proposal

Xcel Energy has withdrawn the cost of leasing a pair of private jets from a $16.2 million natural gas rate increase request this year.

Minneapolis-based Xcel had been criticized by the state attorney general’s office and others for asking ratepayers to pick up the cost of the leased aircraft. The utility estimated that Minnesota’s share of the cost of the eight-seat jets would have been about $165,000 this year.

The jet issue isn’t going away completely, however. The utility will argue for their cost inclusion in proposed rate hikes in a separate case before the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. The commission had opened an investigation of employee expenses and executive perks for all of the state’s utilities after hearing complaints about aircraft costs, resort and luxury hotel stays, overseas trips, lobbying costs and concert tickets being included in past rate cases.

State lower in wind energy ranking

Minnesota dropped to fifth place from fourth among states for wind energy capacity last year, according to the American Wind Energy Association. The wind energy trade group’s fourth-quarter assessment, released Tuesday, shows the state of Washington pulled ahead of Minnesota by adding 542 megawatts of wind capacity compared with Minnesota’s 56 megawatts of additional wind capacity.

Texas remains the top producer with 9,410 megawatts of installed wind capacity, the report said.

Total U.S. wind capacity grew by 9,922 megawatts, the biggest gain ever, the association said. New tax credits in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act last year made it easier to finance wind projects, association officials said.

Briefly

St. Paul-based Ecolab Inc. has entered into an agreement with AvidBiotics Corp. of South San Francisco, Calif., to jointly develop a technology to reduce the presence of an E. coli pathogen in red meat products. … Minneapolis-based Crispin Cider Co. said Tuesday it has acquired California-based Fox Barrel Cider, another maker of alcoholic hard cider. Terms of the all-stock deal were not disclosed. … South St. Paul-based Digital Angel‘s Destron Fearing unit, a provider of animal identification products, and Portland, Ore.-based Animal Profiling International, which offers animal diagnostics, announced a joint program to increase the number of animals to be tested for BVD-PI (Bovine Viral Diarrhea Persistent Infection) in the U.S.

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